Zoo News Digest is the longest established and most widely read listing of current 'zoo' related news on the internet. It notes 'real' events of interest to people working within the zoo industry. By a Zoo Professional for Zoo Professionals and other interested parties. The Digest includes comments and notification of courses and events.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

Zoo News Digest 17th - 21st November 2015 (ZooNews 914)

Dear Colleague,

It is coming to those months....it happens twice a year, where the seasons cross over and there will be dozens of stories about what zoos are doing to warm up or cool down their animals. Why these places don't have some sort of permanent system in place I can't really figure out because all it reads to me is inadequacy and we should never be inadequate for the lives we care for.
Probably the most disturbing 'inadequate' story of the past week is that from Ludhiana Zoo in the Punjab where it is stated " Zoo officials spend lakhs on the diet and medicines of animals, but due to lack of funds, the department fails to pay contractors feeding animals. The state government has passed zero budget for forest and wildlife in the assembly, so the department has no money to feed their animals and take care of them."

No money to feed their animals!! Just what the hell is going on? This isn't just inadequate it is total incompetence. I daresay there will be a follow up on this and as per usual from this part of the world the blame will be placed on the Zoo Keepers and Daily Wage Staff.....when in reality the State government are and should be held responsible. The quote so often attributed to Mahatma Ghandhi

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated". Well going by the way the Punjab are going with their zoo it doesn't hold out much hope for the people.

The other story which is bothering me is of the escaped 'wolf' in Scotland. Most of 'Joe Public' have a preconceived idea of wolves that dates back to the dark ages. I daresay the collection told the newspapers that it was not a wolf in the true sense of the word but a shy mainly frugivorous canid that is neither a wolf nor a fox....but the papers know better...scaring people sells more copy. The only good thing is that only one newspaper has picked up the story so far.The Red Panda escape on the other hand has gone from local to international.

I remain committed to the work of GOOD zoos,

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Interesting Links

KNOWSLEY SAFARI PARK UNVEILS £1.5M DEVELOPMENT PLANS

Knowsley Safari Park
has unveiled £1.5m plans to introduce two new attractions: a five-acre tiger
habitat and a safari drive lodge.

The zoological park
said that the habitat would form a central area to the existing walkaround
while the lodge would allow visitors to stop off on the main safari drive for
the first time and enjoy views of the animals.

The work, which is
scheduled to begin in the spring of 2016, will take up to four months to
complete.

Eveline De Wolf,
head of the animal collection, said: "The new tiger habitat has been
designed especially for Sinda and Bira, our Amur tigers, to provide an
enriching habitat with naturally flowing water that is integrated into the
long-established woodland.

"It will be
great for visitors too, with a full trail around the habitat and elevated views
from specially designed timber viewing platforms."

Edward Perry,
director of operations, said: "The addition of the safari drive lodge has
been in planning for a long time and will give visitors the chance to stop off
mid-drive,

Ziegler says the
biggest threat to Masala would be cars or an animal that preys on small
animals. Red pandas are abou

Earth Matters: Thailand’s efforts to help endangered
Asian elephant

After camping among
wild African elephants in the Serengeti National Park, Tanzania, last
September, I greatly anticipated visiting wild Asian elephants in Thailand this
month. But when I arrived, I found that finding wild elephants in this country
is a little tricky.

Like their larger
African cousins, Asian elephants are a highly endangered species. According to
the the American Museum of Natural History, hundreds of thousands of elephants
roamed Asia until only about 100 years ago. Today, they have been wiped out from
large areas of India, Southeast Asia and China, leaving fewer than 50,000.

I found three great
places to visit Asian elephants in northern Thailand, all about an hour’s drive
from the city of Chang Mai. Trouble is, the elephants in these places are not
exactly wild. That’s because 95 percent of Thailand’s elephants are living in
captivity, and nobody really knows how many wild elephants are left.

A friend and I drove
to the Thai Elephant Conservation Center in the densely forested hills near
Lampang. The TECC is a government-sponsored elephant camp that houses more than
50 Asian elephants (including six of the Thai Royal family’s white elephants).
TECC seeks to educate tourists about the plight of elephants and to raise money
for their conservation.

We watched the
elephants bathe and frolic with their trainers in the creek flowing through the
TECC grounds — truly a highlight of this trip!

After bathing, about
a dozen eleph

France bans imports of lion hunt trophies

France has banned
the import of lion heads, paws and skins as hunters’ trophies, nearly four
months after the killing of Zimbabwe’s most famous lion by an American trophy
hunter sparked international outrage.

In a letter to the
actor and animals rights activist Brigitte Bardot, France’s environment
minister, Ségolène Royal, said that she had instructed officials to stop
issuing permits for lion trophies and was considering stricter controls on
trophies from other species.

“Following your
letter and recent visits in Africa in preparation of the climate summit in
Paris, I want to let you know I have given orders to my services to stop
delivering certificates for importing lion trophies,” Royal wrote in the letter
dated 12 November.

“Concerning other
species trophies, I am in favour of a much stronger control for hunting
trophies and this issue will be discussed with all the countries concerned and
with the EU.”

In July,
conservationists and MEPs called for an EU-wide ban on the import of lion
trophies following the death of Cecil the lion

A dedicated detector
dog named Maggie sniffed out a parcel containing 16.8 kilograms of dried
seahorses at the Air Mail Centre of Hong Kong Airport on Wednesday.

The huge haul was
found in a box with no relevant permits, sparking an investigation into the
contravention of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
and the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Ordinance.

Hong Kong’s
Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) set up a Quarantine
Detector Dog Team in 2008 to bolster its efforts in combating the illegal
importation of animals and animal products, including endangered species.

The AFCD yesterday
reminded the public not to buy, import or export endangered species, pointing
out t

Sea Urchin Goes to the Dentist at National Aquarium

Ifyou think that
humans are the only ones who have to worry about dental care, think again. A
pretty diverse group of animals has to put effort into maintaining their pearly
whites, including a sea urchin that recently went under the knife at the National
Aquarium in Baltimore.

The aquatic
creatures are equipped with five calcareous plates that support their teeth.
With the help of their beak-like mouths, the sea urchins scrape algae right off
of rocks and grind up mussels, a process intended to keep their teeth ground
down.

A new online
platform, launched today, will allow conservationists and technology experts to
share ideas on how to tackle some of the world's most pressing environmental
challenges.

Half the world's natural history specimens may have
the wrong name

As many as 50% of
all natural history specimens held in the world's museums could be wrongly
named, according to a new study by researchers from Oxford University and the
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

The real story about our elephant project

As you may know,
we’re awaiting approval of a permit to relocate 18 elephants who face certain
death in Swaziland. We’re joining two other accredited U.S. zoos to give them
the newest, most innovative homes for elephants in human care. Some anti-zoo
activists are spreading untruths about this project and attacking us to spark
negative comments to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services. They believe these
animals are better off dead than living in our remarkable new habitats – and we
strongly disagree.

So we’re sharing the
facts in this short VIDEO below. We partner with many African conservation
groups, helping save species in crisis there. It’s a difficult, complex
situation with few easy answers. Between the horrific daily poaching deaths and
the devastating Swazi drought, there simply is no safe place for these
elephants in Africa. Swazi officials have worked on their thoughtful
conservation plan for 50 years, and their decision about these elephants is
critical to saving the nearly extinct black rhino. We are proud to o

It’s a risky
strategy. The metre-high nest mounds are often gu

Disturbing: Ex-SeaWorld Trainer Reveals What It Was
Like Getting Splashed All The Time

Every year, millions
of visitors flock to SeaWorld to see incredible performances by dolphins and
killer whales. But what looks like harmless family fun on the surface has a
dark side. Now, one brave ex-trainer is exposing the reality of being
repeatedly and systematically splashed.

Former trainer Jeff
Rodriguez has gone public with his story in the hopes that he can stop
SeaWorld’s cycle of exploitation.

“They prey on young
people who have dreams of working with animals,” Jeff said. “At first, it’s
just a light mist, then it’s Shamu splashing these huge waves right into your
face. They keep upping it, and before you know it, you are getting splashed
very hard.”

Jeff had to endure
large, wet splashes—sometimes right in his eyes—on a daily basis for four
years.

Horrifying.

“The splashing might
seem fun from the safety of the bleachers, but imagine that big splash blasting
right into your face,” said Jeff. “For the audience, it’s just a few quick
splashes and then they head back to their hotels, but for us, we get wet—like,
real wet.”

“Some days, we’re in
the water with these animals for eight or nine hours,” Jeff added. “We’re
getting splashed constantly.”

When it comes to
where the blame lie

Vinpearl Safari Phu Quoc welcomes 200 rare animals

VietNamNet Bridge -
The Vinpearl Safari Park on Phu Quoc Island, the first wildlife zoo in Vietnam,
has just received 200 endangered animals of different species from various
bio-geographic regions in the world.

Experts at the Royal
Zoological Society of Scotland are now doing DNA tests that will prove
conclusively whether the kitten – picked up near Alford – is a wildcat.

There are thought to
be fewer than 400 Scottish wild

The end of canned lion hunting looks imminent

Breaking news has
also come out of the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa (PHASA)
AGM. A motion has been passed that disassociates PHASA with the captive-bred
lion industry until such a time that the industry can convince PHASA and the
IUCN that the practice is beneficial to lion conservation. This came after
canned lion breeders and supporters were apparently outvoted 147 to 103.

Why Zookeepers Don't Want To Touch Seattle's Newborn
Gorilla

Zookeepers have
noticed that Nadiri, a gorilla at the Woodland Park Zoo, has been restless at
night and walking around more. For two weeks, they’ve watched her on
closed-circuit television, waiting for signals that her baby is ready to
arrive.

Nadiri, a 19-year
old, first time mother, was due on Thursday. Her minders are hoping to be hands
off at this birth – to give mother and child the time they need to bond.

Update: Baby Gorilla
Is Born, But Mom Walks Away

“If we never have
our hands on this infant, never have to handle it in any way, I would consider
that a huge success for all of us,” said Harmony Frazier, a senior veterinary
technician at the Seattle zoo.

At the very least,
they hope it goes better than Nadiri’s own birth.

Nadiri’s traumatic
birth in February 1996 – and what happened after – tugged Seattle heartstrings.
Woodland Park Zoo received 3,000 submissions for baby names. Long lines formed
to watch baby Nadiri at the zoo nursery. Bruegger’s Bagels held a press conference
to financially adopt the newborn and lavished the baby gorilla with diapers and
f

“She’s quite shy and
would probably be more scared than any member of the public who came across
her. She won’t attack anyone but we want her back.”

Cameron and his
father also spotted the wolf at the golf course near the park on Monday night
but were unab

Ruff sex: Scientists identify genetic sequence of a
bird with four genders

Talking about the
"birds and the bees" is a tricky and delicate matter. Especially if
you are referring to the mating behaviour of a particular bird called a ruff.

A ruff is a type of
wading sandpiper. The female ruff looks similar to the type of sandpiper you
may see at the beach. But the male ruffs are a more diverse bunch. There are
three different kinds of male genders -- including a "female mimic."
Scientists have known about this for a few years. But now a group of biologists
has found the group of genes responsible for the unique gender diversity and
behavioural traits in ruff sex.

"We try to
avoid the use of that word actually because it takes you to strange places on
an internet search engine," David Lank tells As It Happens host Carol
Off. "The enigma of the species is
how there are three distinctly different kinds of males and how they co-exist
in the same species."

Lank is a biology
professor at Simon Fraser University and co-author of the new study.

The male genders are
split into three categories: territorial males, satellite males or female
mimics. Lank explains that during the mating season each gender competes for fe

Truth Squad: Blackfish Scientists Get Schooled

The anti-zoological
crowd has built its legacy on sneaking misinformation into society through
films, books, speeches and social media.

Sometimes, anti-zoo
proponents will even try to sneak their agenda into real science, as Jeff
Ventre and John Jett did with their 2015 paper claiming wild killer whales live
longer than those in zoological facilities.

Since Ventre and
Jett were so eager to pretend to be experts, they should have been ready for
the real ones to call them out, which is exactly what happened at IMATA 2015.

Dr. Kelly Jaakkola,
one of the world’s foremost experts in dolphin cognition, and Dr. Grey
Stafford, a PhD biologist and expert on positive reinforcement training in
zoological species, tore apart the Ventre and Jett paper in a 15 minute
smackdown dual presentation at the conference held in the Bahamas.

UAB engineers develop new method to repair elephant
tusks

When Birmingham Zoo
veterinarians approached researchers from the University of Alabama at
Birmingham School of Engineering to help them stop a crack from growing in
their oldest elephant’s tusk, the engineers saw an opportunity to use their
expertise in materials science to improve the industry standard for the repair
process.

Cracks in elephants’
tusks historically have been repaired by adhering a metal ring to the tusk in
order to stabilize the crack and prevent it from growing any farther up the
tusk.

The Birmingham Zoo
asked the director of UAB’s Materials Processing and Applications Development
Center, Brian Pillay, Ph.D., to do just that, for Bulwagi, a 35-year-old male
African elephant in their care.

Pillay’s immediate
response was to innovate the process, and apply some of the science the lab
uses in other materials processes to create a new, more robust and seamless tre

Scientists discover method to eliminate killer fungus
in amphibians

Research published
today details the first-ever successful elimination of a fatal chytrid fungus
in a wild amphibian, marking a major breakthrough in the fight against the
disease responsible for devastating amphibian populations worldwide. The
highly-infectious chytrid pathogen has severely affected over 700 amphibian
species worldwide; driving population declines, extirpations and species
extinctions across five continents.

NYÍREGYHÁZA-SÓSTÓ ZOO NAMED BEST OF EUROPE IN IT'S
CATEGORY!

The zoo of the city
of Nyíregyháza in North-eastern Hungary was ranked first by the foundation of
Anthony Sheridan in the category of comprising zoos with between 250 000 and
500 000 visitors a year. The high ranking is due to the rare species of animals
and the significant number of visitors, from Hungary and abroad.

„19 years ago, when
we developed the idea of the institution, we simply wanted to open a zoo with a
novel approach in this wonderful oak forest at Sóstó" – says Mr. László
Gajdos, director of Nyíregyháza Zoo, which is one of the youngest participants
of the competition. „We regard our work as a mission, and we see this
recognition as a confirmation that we proceed in the right way. Our aim is to
ensure the best conditions for the 5000 animals living here, and that our 450
000 visitors every year could leave th

Zoo animals crave human touch

In a city like
Ludhiana, where people don't hesitate to spend big money on their pets, there
are no takers for zoo animals up for adoption. Since Punjab government approved
the animal adoption scheme on June 15, 2009, there have only been two cases of
animal adoption, that too by a city based school. In 2010 and 2011, Kundan
Vidya Mandir, Civil Lines adopted a tiger, black bucks and birds for two years.
But no one came forward to adopt the animals after that. Adoption entails
bearing expenses of food and upkeep of the animal.

Zoo officials spend
lakhs on the diet and medicines of animals, but due to lack of funds, the
department fails to pay contractors feeding animals. The state government has
passed zero budget for forest and wildlife in the assembly, so the department
has no money to feed their animals and take care of them.

District Forest
Officer (DFO), Surjit Sahota said, "It would be great if citizens come
forward to adopt zoo animals, because funds are always limited. They should
join this good cause. Adoption can be for one year and for one month too.
Anybody can adopt an animal. The person adopting will have to pay a fixed
amount."

Sandeep Jain,
president, People for Animal (PFA), Ludhiana said, "There should be
awareness about this scheme. People do not know they can adopt zoo animals. Sec

THE head keeper at
the Australian Reptile Park was taken to hospital on Tuesday after being bitten
by a highly venomous death adder while milking it.

The park confirmed
head reptile keeper Billy Collett was bitten on the index finger by a common
death adder — the sixth most venomous snake in Australia — during a routine
venom extraction procedure at the park.

It was the first
time Mr Collett — who was milking the adder as part of the park’s venom-milking
program — had been bitten by a snake.

Tulsa Zoo: Tova The Elephant Had Massive Bladder Stone

The necropsy
performed on the elephant that was euthanized on Sunday revealed she had a
10-pound bladder stone, according to the Tulsa Zoo.

The zoo said Tova
the 43-year-old Asian elephant was euthanized because she had stopped eating
and drinking and was in pain. Experts from the Center for Elephant Conservation
tried to find what caused the symptoms. Despite that, Tova was euthanized to end
her suffering.

Baby Tiger Drugged And Dragged Around Casino — Just
For Fun

When Russia's latest
attraction, the ritzy Tigre de Cristal casino, opened its doors last month, it
needed something big to make an impact. So, it decided haul around a
5-month-old endangered tiger cub who was drugged so heavily she couldn't open
her eyes.

Patrons and members
of the public were shocked to see the young Amur tiger being carted around the
casino floor in Vladivostok, Russia. Barely conscious, her inner eyelids
drooped shut, leaving her with a blank red stare.

Vacancies in Zoos and Aquariums and Wildlife/Conservation facilities around the World

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About me

After more than 47
years working in private, commercial and National zoos in the capacity of
keeper, head keeper and curator Peter Dickinson started to travel. He sold
house and all his possessions and hit the road. He has traveled extensively in
Turkey, Southern India and much of South East Asia before settling in Thailand.
In his travels he has visited well over 200 zoos and writes about these in his
blog http://zoonewsdigest.blogspot.com/

Peter earns his
living as an international independent zoo consultant, critic and writer.
Currently working as Curator of Penguins in Ski Dubai. United Arab Emirates. He
describes himself as an itinerant zoo keeper, a dreamer, a traveller, a people
watcher, a lover, a thinker, a cosmopolitan, a writer, a hedonist, an explorer,
a pantheist, a gastronome, sometime fool, a good friend to some and a pain in
the butt to others.

About Me

I have worked in the zoo world for over 48 years in the capacity of keeper, head keeper and curator. For information related to a zoos, zoo careers and more please see:
http://hubpages.com/_BL29/hub/The-Zoo-Hubs
See also my profile at:
http://www.google.com/profiles/elvinhow